18 Peanut Butter Recipes We Adore

By Food & Wine and Bridget Hallinan
Updated February 25, 2020
Credit: Antonis Achilleos
The beauty of peanut butter is that it can lean sweet or savory. We love pairing it with chocolate for a peanut butter cup-inspired dessert; it also makes a tasty sauce for burgers. Read on for those recipes and more peanut butter dishes to try.
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Double-Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

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This incredibly chocolaty and creamy quick-bake pie is Vitaly Paley's grown-up version of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.

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Creamy Peanut Butter Pie

Credit: Kamran Siddiqi
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This delicious whipped-cream-topped peanut butter pie offers the perfect balance of sweet and salty flavors.

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Chicken Burgers with Spicy Peanut Sauce

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These top-rated burgers are paired with a slick of peanut sauce, made with creamy peanut butter, chile powder, chopped red onions, coconut milk, and salt.

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Steamed Snapper with Tangy Peanut Sauce

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To make this deeply nut-flavored sauce, Andrew Carmellini cooks peanut butter with garlic, ginger and lemongrass, then punches it up with Sriracha hot sauce. It's not the only accompaniment to the snapper, though: He also serves the fillets with the cooking juices, flavored with lime juice, peanut oil and a little pungent fish sauce.

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Peanut Butter Crunch French Toast

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This decadent version of French toast is made with two slices of buttery brioche that are filled with creamy peanut butter, coated in crunchy cornflakes, toasted until crisp and topped with maple syrup and fresh berries. 

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Peanut Butter Pound Cake S'mores

Credit: © Stephanie Foley
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In this riff on the campfire classic, Grace Parisi replaces crunchy graham crackers with buttery store-bought pound cake, sandwiched with marshmallow fluff and peanut butter and served alongside a cup of warm melted chocolate for dipping.

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Beef Burgers with Peanut-Chipotle Barbecue Sauce

Credit: JOHN KERNICK
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Bobby Flay makes this extremely good barbecue sauce by spiking tomato puree with two forms of smoky chile–ancho chile powder and chipotle in adobo sauce—then adding peanut butter for sweetness. The sauce takes some time to prepare, but by doubling the recipe, it can be made in one large batch and kept in the refrigerator for up to two months.

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Crunchy Peanut Butter Cookies

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Peanut butter binds these supernutty flourless cookies from Southern cook Elizabeth Woodson, a former art director at F&W.

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Groundnut Stew

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Peanut butter and okra flavor and thicken this tasty African stew. You can substitute green beans for the okra, if you like; the consistency of the sauce won't be quite the same, but it will still be thick enough to cling to the chicken.

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Silky Chocolate Mousse with Peanut Butter Crunch

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Any chocolate and peanut butter lover will adore this elegant dessert from pastry chef Rachel Lansang-Hidalgo. She tops a rich milk-chocolate mousse with a roasted-peanut cream and crunchy cornflakes mixed with peanut butter, milk chocolate and peanuts.

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Spicy Peanut Sauce

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With just a few pantry ingredients and a blender, homemade peanut sauce is a snap to make.

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Banana Custard-Stuffed Peanut Butter Cupcakes

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These stuffed, gluten-free cupcakes are completely over-the-top but well worth the effort.

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Chocolate-Peanut Butter Moon Pies

Credit: © Kamran Siddiqi
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Moon pies are classic Southern cookies filled with marshmallow and coated with chocolate. Rebekah Turshen, models hers on the classic, but also on the excellently named Goo-Goo Clusters, a peanut candy invented in Nashville in 1912. She spreads crispy sugar cookies with chocolate and peanut butter, then sandwiches them around a marshmallow filling.

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Banana–Chocolate Chip Snack Cake with Salted Peanut Butter Frosting

Credit: Antonis Achilleos
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Ann Taylor Pittman says that peanut butter behaves quite similarly to butter in this recipe, beating to a fluffy consistency that gives the frosting a smooth, creamy, buttercream-like texture. 

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Peanut Butter–Chocolate Pie

Credit: Antonis Achilleos
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Ben Mims was also inspired by peanut butter cups in this pie recipe. Peanut butter pudding makes up the filling, with a dark chocolate (salted!) ganache on top.

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Glazed Beef Shanks with Coffee and Peanuts

Credit: Oriana Koren
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Mashama Bailey roasts these hefty beef shanks in a ginger- and spice-spiked tomato sauce which she finishes with a generous dollop of thick and creamy peanut butter. She garnishes with Microplane-grated coffee beans; toss them in a coffee grinder for a chunkier texture.

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Peanut Punch Fraco

Credit: Victor Protasio
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Fraco is a warm-weather treat in St. Croix of the U.S. Virgin Islands, typically made from ice shaved by hand and topped with a sweet syrup. Chef Digby Stridiron, the chef at Braata in Frederiksted, St. Croix, prepares it with coconut milk, creamy peanut butter, sweetened condensed milk, Jamaican dark rum, grated cinnamon, grated fresh nutmeg, and vanilla bean seeds.

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Peanut Butter Breakfast Cookies

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Laura Lea says these cookies are incredibly easy to make, the perfect balance between sweet and savory.

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By Food & Wine and Bridget Hallinan